Israel to relax rules for foreign hi-tech workers
Hundreds of foreign workers will begin working at Israeli hi-tech companies and startups this year. In recent months, a special team has been looking into the importing of workers from overseas for Israeli companies given the shortage of thousands of engineers. The team will submit its recommendations to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the coming weeks.
The core of the recommendations involve reducing bureaucracy and easing processes for obtaining permission from the Immigration Authority for bringing in employees with expertise that meets the requirements of hi-tech companies, people familiar with the matter told Globes.
These employees will receive “specialist visas” enabling them to move to Israel for two years, with the possibility of a further extension of up to three more years. Children and spouses of the holders of specialist visas will receive permission from the Immigration Authority to work in Israel.
The Economy Ministry will map local hi-tech companies and establish a special database of 1,500 companies recognized by it. This will enable the Immigration Authority to ease bureaucracy and handling of requests submitted by the companies included in this database, and there will be no preference for accepting workers from any specific country.
“When the Immigration Authority receives requests from companies in the database to hire foreign workers, it will require only declarations from the employers in the framework of the more rapid and simpler handling,” a source involved in the plan said.
In an attempt to maintain the relatively high salary levels in the hi-tech industry, the team plans to recommend that a foreigner employed at an Israeli company receive a minimum gross monthly salary of NIS 20,000 – double the average wage in Israel, people familiar with the matter said.
Netanyahu, who is also the economy minister, would endorse the team’s recommendations, the sources said. In contrast to the importing of foreign workers for the purpose of overcoming the shortage of personnel in agriculture and construction, no maximum quota will be set for workers allowed to work in the hi-tech companies.
Netanyahu ordered the program set in motion in February after seeing figures showing a shortage of 10,000 workers in Israeli hi-tech companies, startups and cyber companies.
“The Israeli hi-tech industry has come to a halt,” an informed source said. “It is unable to develop and produce more than what it is producing now because it lacks suitable personnel.
“At the same time, investments in Israeli hi-tech are continuing apace, and Israel is still regarded worldwide as a hi-tech investment magnet. We will overcome the shortage of workers by bringing workers from overseas. Already this year, companies will have several hundred such workers, and later there will be thousands.”